High Stakes
by Golem XIV
Summary: This is an experiment of sorts. I wrote the beginning of a short one-shot and both me and my friend Bearhow are going to write separate versions of the ending. More details in Chapter 1, and the different versions of story itself start from Chapter 2. The current version of the story was written by ShiningHopeBeast!
1. Introduction

**Author's Notes:**

A few days ago I mentioned to Bearhow that I had several half-done one-shots that I had begun, abandoned and then completely forgot where I was going with them. I sent him one example and he got back to me with his thoughts of how it could have concluded. His idea was interesting, but slightly different from mine. And then I had an epiphany.

I was going to post that same beginning, and then we were going to finish it separately, each one with his own ending. Of course, now the cat was out of the bag and we figured we could get even more people on board! We already have an expression of interest from a few more authors, and I hope we'll have their endings up soon also.

FanFiction site rules don't allow me to request interaction through a story, so please PM me if you have any questions.

 **PLEASE DO NOT USE REVIEWS TO ASK QUESTIONS, PM ME INSTEAD!**

-=oOo=-

 **High Stakes**

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the _king!_ "

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

" _YEAH!_ Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

[ _The alternate endings go here_ ]


	2. Golem XIV

**Author's Notes:** This is my version of the story. Bearhow's version will follow soon, and all the others after that. Hope you enjoy them all!

-=oOo=-

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the _king!_ "

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

" _YEAH!_ Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

-=oOo=-

"Huh?" the changeling's head jerked in surprise to look at his best friend, losing a small but important fraction of a second. Taking advantage of Garfield's confusion, Robin unloaded half a clip from an assault rifle into his character.

" _Dude!_ " Garfield shouted, then scowled at his friends. "That's _so_ not fair!"

"Oh, I'm sure he has!" Robin grinned, picking up Cyborg's lead. "Isn't there a 'Beast Boy Fangirl Club' with hundreds of members?"

"Of course there is," the half-metal youth slipped smoothly in. "I've seen B hand out membership cards to every cute girl he sees!"

On the other side of the couch a large, leather-bound book held in small, pale hands descended just enough for a pair of violet eyes to look over its edge at the trio. The eyes rolled in silent exasperation and the heavy tome was lifted again, hiding them from view.

"Shame those cards end up in the garbage almost as quickly as he gives them out," the leader of the Titans snickered.

" _That's not true!_ " Beast Boy snapped angrily at Robin, then returned his attention to the game, again just a little too late. He facepalmed as his character slumped to the ground, headless.

"Oh, we're sorry, Evergreen, you're right!" Cyborg said appeasingly, offering the green youth an apology as genuine as a three-dollar bill. "I mean, we all saw those fangirls pursuing you in Tokyo, didn't we?"

"That's right!" the Boy Wonder agreed smugly. "Shame that Beast Boy was kinda confused there!"

"Very true!" Cyborg nodded to the changeling almost gravely, an expression belied by the enormous, insufferable grin on his face. "If you wanna kiss a girl, y'all run _after_ her, not _away_ from her!"

" _Knock it off!_ " Garfield shouted, not even noticing that Cyborg fragged his character again. "I've kissed _lots_ of girls, just so you know!"

On the other side of the couch, the heavy book was lowered again. The same pair of violet eyes now regarded the boys under a set of severe, dark eyebrows that crept slowly together, eerily reminiscent of black, ominous clouds gathering before a thunderstorm.

"You have?" the Boy Wonder arched his eyebrows in mock surprise. "Damn, man, you sure know how to keep it a secret!"

Garfield's mouth worked, but only a few choked growls squeezed themselves out. His character respawned and stood still, ignored, only to receive a blast from both barrels of Cyborg's shotgun.

"Well, that's a surprise for me, too!" the half-robotic giant chuckled. "Grass Stain sure can hide these things well, dontcha think, Rob?"

"Sure! We've established none of the fangirls kissed him. Maybe that Japanese cat-girl?"

"Could be, but considering she wanted to kill him later, she was either teasing him or he's a very bad kisser!"

Beast Boy's fingers gripped the controller so tight that his knuckles whitened. He had forgotten about the game already. His friends had evened and surpassed his score, but the teasing had grown out of its original intent and had become its own purpose. In the end, it was Cyborg that plunged the blade deep into Garfield's heart.

"What about Terra?"

Immediately realizing his blunder, the man-machine snapped his mouth shut and his face flushed dark. Robin's mischievous cackle was cut short abruptly. Beast Boy sat quietly and silently, his gaze fixed on the floor.

" _Enough!_ " a raspy voice commanded, punctuated by the loud slap of the heavy tome being slammed shut. Raven floated up, leaving her book forgotten on the couch.

" _You!_ " she stabbed an accusing finger towards a cowed Cyborg. "You seem to forget very easily how long it took you to get a grip and stop feeling sorry for yourself! Where would you be today if it wasn't for Sarah?"

Beast Boy looked up in amazement, his eyes widening and his heart swelling at the sight of his secret crush standing up for him. She was absolutely _hot_ when she was angry.

Cyborg sank his head between his shoulders in shame and Raven whirled to Robin. "And _you!_ " she snarled. "Like you're the one to say anything! Starfire had to pry your head out of your butt with a _corkscrew!_ "

Robin cringed. "You're right, Rae," he admitted their mistake. "Gar, we're sorry. We shouldn't have…"

"It's OK, dude," Gar replied morosely, too busy staring at Raven in deep fascination. "I'm fine."

Cyborg scowled and looked away. "It still don't mean you've ever kissed a girl, Greenbean," he muttered quietly to himself. "And you're still doin' the dishes."

But Raven heard his mumbled whisper. He felt the icy cold of her glare skewer him. He gulped and raised his eyes to look at her. She was standing beside Beast Boy, her fists on her hips and a mischievous smile on her face.

"Wrong, Victor!" she smirked, bent and kissed the green changeling fiercely. For a short instant Garfield was transformed into a block of green jade, then his arms relaxed and wrapped themselves around the sorceress, pulling her closer as he returned her kiss with everything he had.

It lasted for quite some time. The couple ignored several harrumphs and throat clearings coming from the two older Titans. Finally, Raven broke the kiss and lifted her head to look at Cyborg, her breathing fast and hard. "Wrong on both accounts!"

A black portal appeared and swallowed the couple. Cyborg and Robin looked at each other.

"Ten minute deathmatch?" Robin asked through a smirk.

"Guess so," Cyborg grinned back and reached for his controller.


	3. Bearhow

**Author's Notes:** This version of the story was done by my good friend Bearhow! He's a great FF writer that has authored many Teen Titans stories and one-shots, mostly centered around the fantastic OCs he created like Drake Daniels, the Dragon Knight, and Landon, the King of Hell. Bearhow is also a wonderful illustrator and his creations grace the covers of several of my stories. Make sure you relax, lean back and enjoy his idea!

-=oOo=-

 **High Stakes**

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the _king!_ "

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

" _YEAH!_ Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger.

* * *

 **-=( Bearhow's Version Starts Here )=-**

* * *

Beast Boy's thumbs worked furiously as he focused on continuing his digital onslaught. His two friends huffed, but not as loudly as the "Harrumph!" that came from behind them.

None of them had noticed the angry stare being shot into the back of their heads by a pair of violet, slightly red, eyes. Her arms were folded over her chest, her foot tapping furiously, and if you looked closely enough you could practically see her snorting hellfire and brimstone from her nose. They were already late for the movie, the latest adaptation of Stephen King's _IT_. Something that Raven actually wanted to see, but watching her boyfriend and subsequent brothers playing, it didn't appear there was an end in sight.

The worst was that she _knew_ he could hear her. Whenever she cleared her throat, tapped her foot or made any other "pay attention to me" noises, she would see his ear twitch in her direction. With the movie missed, she glared again, the idea of a fun night out with her boyfriend forgotten, her thoughts were now consumed with vengeance.

A devilish grin spread across her lips, a plan quickly coming together.

She approached the battling trio, making sure to keep a gentle sway to her hips as she moved, and placed herself on the armrest of the couch right next to her green bae. She leaned against him, snaking her hand along the contours of his shoulders, eliciting a shiver, but not quite his attention.

Yet.

She brought her lips inches from his pointed ear. "Goodness, Beast Boy. I've never seen you so focused!" Her voice was low and sultry and feeling his back stiffen, and hearing death coming from the video game, she knew she had him. Now it was time to bring it home. She leaned closer, making sure the pale swell of her full lips brushed against the tip of his ear. "I just hope you're this focused in _everything_ that you do."

A scream from his poor defeated avatar, and the cheers of his teammates in victory, were quickly drowned out by the sudden pounding in his ears. With his controller slipping from his grasp he turned his head, but she had already removed herself from her spot on the arm of the couch and was heading towards the door. A quick wink from over her shoulder was the final nail and he bounded over the couch after her.

She kept a good pace in front of him as they walked to her room, at least a few steps ahead of him, making sure to take slow, precise movements with her hips, and arms to further entice him. And it worked. His emotions were a whirlwind of desire and lust in anticipation for what was to come.

"Excited, are we?" Once again her voice was low and husky.

She felt his emotions swivel to brief embarrassment. "Well-I, uh, I mean we haven't-we've been dating for a while-and Uh." He stopped speaking when a set of cool fingers were placed onto his lips.

"Shhhh, stop talking for once." His heart skipped a beat when he saw that they had come to her door.

Oh god! What is happening!? Is this happening!?

Her door opened and she stepped backwards into the darkness, but her hand stayed on his chest, keeping him out.

"Eh, I'm tired. Good luck with dish duty." And her door shut with him outside green skinned, red from embarrassment, and blue. Very, VERY, Blue.


	4. Eldritch Sardine

This version of the story was made by Eldritch Sardine. They are new to the site, but they already have a great BBRae one-shot, _Just Enjoy It_ , and a wonderful multi-chapter that is ongoing right now, _Testing Feelings_. Check them out!

-=oOo=-

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the king!"

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

" _YEAH!_ Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

* * *

-=( **Eldritch Sardine's Version Starts Here** )=-

* * *

The changeling in question faltered, startled by the question. "Huh?"

"It's a simple question, Beast Boy," Robin responded, picking up on Cyborg's scheme. "Kissing. Have you done it?"

Unbeknownst to the boys, a certain purple empath entered the common room through the doors behind them as they played, floating soundlessly toward the stove to prepare a steaming pot of fresh tea.

"Kissed... What?" Beast Boy sputtered. Using his bewilderment to their advantage, Robin and Cyborg rushed the green teen's character. One flashbang grenade and a few well-placed shots later, and the score was down to a difference of three frags. "Oh come on! That's so not fair," he complained once he realized what had just happened.

"So is that a no?" Cyborg prompted. This course of action was his only hope to avoid washing live tentacles, alien eyeballs, and worse off of the Towers tableware, courtesy of the resident alien member of their team and her "homestyle" dishes, as well as her appetite, which was enough to literally fill seven stomachs.

Robin turned to his teammate, feigning surprise. "You're eighteen, and still haven't even kissed anyone? Really?" Cyborg winked at him and flashed a discrete thumbs-up from behind the changeling. Behind them, grey hands paused in their actions and a pair of amethyst eyes turned to observe the boys on the sofa.

"Dude, I've kissed plenty of girls!" Beast Boy responded irately.

Cyborg laughed. "Well excuse us, Grass Stain! I didn't know you were so good at keeping that kinda thing a secret!"

A growl emanated from deep in Beast Boy's throat.

Robin smirked. "Y'know Cy, I don't know if I believe that actually. I mean, have you ever seen any girls spend more than 2 minutes on Beast Boy?"

The metal man paused, making sure to appear deep in thought. "Well, there was that chick in Tokyo, but she spent most of that time calling him a nerd running away. Not sure that's what you're talking about man," he said.

"Okay, so maybe he really _hasn't_ kissed anyone," Robin responded slowly.

"Okay, fine! I haven't. I've kinda been busy with the whole 'saving the world' thing dudes!" The changeling answered irritatedly.

Robin paused, debating his next move. He knew what would get a reaction, but he wasn't certain if it was too far. Then again, it had happened years ago at this point. But then he remembered. The stakes. That made up his mind for him. "Not even... Terra?"

In the kitchen, a glass and multiple lightbulbs cracked.

Cyborg and Robin braced for the changeling's response, unsure of what to expect. Sorrow? Anger? Regret? All of the above?

However, what came next was a surprise to both of them. Beast Boy simply started laughing. "Terra? Oh come on, we never got that far," he chuckled. "We never got anywhere else either. That was never going to happen." After his humor subsided, he glanced up at the screen just in time to see his character's lifeless body fall to the floor once again. Only two more.

"Okay," Cyborg continued. The plan was working perfectly, they only needed to get the Grass Stain a few more times and victory was theirs. "What about other girls. Any civilians been _extra_ thankful when you saved 'em?" The changeling didn't bother to reply, so he upped the ante. "How 'bout Titans? Jinx, Argent, Kole, Starf-" he cut himself off after noticing Robin's glare.

"Nah, not interested," Beast Boy replied disinterestedly. He simply kept playing the game, moving to a more strategic position in the balcony of a second story building.

"Oh? Maybe because you're interested in guys?" Robin snickered. Cyborg both laughed and mentally slapped himself in the face for not thinking of that one himself. Multiple objects in the kitchen began to float into the air behind them, surrounded by a black aura.

Beast Boy recoiled, staring at Robin in horror. "No, dude! That is so not-" he was interuptted by the dying scream of his virtual avatar once again, dropped by his metal friend while he was distracted. As his character fell, so did the various items that had taken flight in the kitchen, coming down to rest on the counters once again as the half-demon responsible took deep breaths to calm her momentary panic.

Beast Boy was now only winning by a single frag, and there was still nearly two minutes remaining to close that gap. _It's time for the killing blow,_ Cyborg thought to himself, smirking to himself wickedly. "Okay, Greenbean, calm down. Rob was joking. I think." He paused, waiting for Robin to get into position behind Beast Boy's character, ready to take the shot.

The changeling didn't take his eyes off of the screen, as he was focused on preserving his dwindling lead. However, one of his pointed ears had twitched and rotated itself in the metal man's direction, indicating he was at least partially paying attention. Robin nodded slightly to Cyborg, ready to knock their rival off of his pedestal.

"Well, I guess you really haven't. I mean, I didn't even bring Raven up, but we already know that would never happen." Cyborg was well aware of the changeling's lasting crush on the empath, as was everyone else in the Tower except the subject of said feelings, apparently.

Was it underhanded and dirty? Yes. Was it twisted and even slightly evil? Definitely. But one thought of what was at stake and Cyborg knew it was justified.

The affect was instantaneous, but it did not come from the green teen as he expected. A loud shattering noise came from the kitchen behind them, which was plunged into darkness. All three boys whirled around to survey the room in surprise. Other than an overabundance of broken glass and a boiling teapot, it was empty. They slowly turned back around, only to start once again when they found Raven standing directly in front of the couch, blocking their view of the TV, staring at Beast Boy intently.

"Hey Rae," the changeling said slowly. "What are you..." He stopped speaking as the empath took two steps forward, placing her inches away from his form.

"On the contrary, Cyborg," she deadpanned, before leaning down without warning and, faster than a striking snake, planting her lips on Beast Boy's.

After an amount of time that none of the four present could recall, the empath pulled back before summoning a portal, which she pushed Beast Boy through, who was too busy staring straight ahead with glazed eyes, one hand brushing his lips, which were curled in a happy and content smile. With that, Raven strode through after him, and the magical doorway closing behind her.

Three hours later, Starfire hummed as she placed her used plates, bowls, and other assorted tableware next to the sink to be washed. On the common room couch, two individuals still sat. Cyborg and Robin were frozen in shock, still in the same positions they had been when _it_ had happened. The noises of dishes clinking together and nauseating slopping reached their ears, breaking them out of their reverie. Glancing towards the source of the sound, they took in the multitude of items, as well as the remains of classic Tamaranean delicacies, which were the origin of the other abhorrent sounds.

As one, the two teens whirled back around to view the TV. 'Winner: BeastMan9000'.

Without warning, the astral Raven of the resident empath manifested itself before them before fading away and revealing Raven and Beast Boy. Both had slightly ruffled hair and clothes, as well as flushed faces. Their arms were around each other, and both wore shit-eating grins as they beheld the two superheroes staring at them, traumatized. Well, Raven's expression was merely an upward curve of one side of her mouth, but the sentiment was clear.

"You guys should probably just stick to betting money. That's much less risky. Enjoy the dishes," Beast Boy laughed. His competitors merely stared at him, eyes the size of the dinner plates they were soon to be cleaning.

"You... you..." Cyborg stuttered.

Raven rolled her eyes. "At this point Beast Boy has done more kissing than both of you have combined, so you're going to need to find something else to distract him with from now on."

Cyborg chuckled. "Sis, BB ain't passed me up. Before my accident I was the most popular guy on campus. You'd hafta spend hours doing nothing but kissing to even get close."

The empath glanced towards him. "Oh, I know that."

Robin gulped.

"Well Rae," Beast Boy interrupted, "I was thinking of a nice big feast to celebrate us. Lots and _lots_ of dishes," he said, grinning at his friends on the couch as he spoke.

"That sounds tolerable," Raven responded. Those present all noted her lack of correcting the changeling's use of her nickname. "I'll let Starfire know. Maybe she'd like to make some Tameranean meals too." The couple began making their way around the couch towards the kitchen.

Raven noticed Cyborg and Robin's horror-struck expressions and paused. "What's wrong? Were the stakes too high for you?"


	5. TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne

**Author's Notes:** Dudes, do I have a treat for y'all! This here contribution was done by none other than the granddaddy of TT fanfiction, TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne. Force has years of presence on this site, and by my rough calculations he has written over a million and a half words, most of it BBRae. He was also the one that coined the phrase "Chromatically Challenged Couple™" to describe our favorite pairing. I'm absolutely thrilled that he decided to join us in our effort and submit his version, and I know you guys will enjoy it as much as I did!

-=oOo=-

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the _king!_ "

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

" _YEAH!_ Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

* * *

-=( **Force's version starts here** )=-

* * *

Beast Boy looked away from the screen for a split second.

"What did you, say?"

The Tin Man grinned an evil smile.

"I asked if you've ever kissed a girl?"

Beast Boy momentarily lost his concentration, and was rewarded by seeing his video game character get its head blasted off by a grenade.

"Fragged you!" Robin gloated.

Gar stared at the screen, with a troubled expression on his face.

"Are you gonna keep on playing or not? Because if you don't, that's a forfeit." Robin reminded him.

The Green Titan nodded and resumed playing, though he definitely seemed suddenly off his game, which did not go unnoticed by his opponents. Robin and Cyborg exchanged subtle nods.

"Well?" Robin asked.

"Well what?"

"Have you ever kissed a girl?"

Again, the green lad seemed troubled and didn't answer.

"Come on, Beast Boy, answer!"

"Yeah, I have." He grumbled in reply as he tried to focus on the video game.

"I thought you said you never kissed Terra."

He lowered his controller and glared at Robin.

"It wasn't Terra!"

The next thing he heard was a loud boom on the surround sound system, followed by Chrome Dome shouting his signature 'booyah". His lead was now gone. He tapped a button on his controller and his player came back to life. He frowned as he focused on the screen and began to tap furiously on the controller.

"So who was it, B? It wasn't one of those crazy Tokyo fan girls or one of Brushogan's golems? I saw them kiss you, but you never kissed them. I know, cuz I was watchin' you the whole time and I saw videos from the karaoke bar."

"You were spying on me!" He shrieked. He then heard his player die again, this time at Robin's hands. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, as an exasperated moan escaped his lips.

"You guys suck!"

"Hey, all is fair in video games and war." Robin jeered in reply.

"And this is both, grass stain … so … there was no one, right?"

Unbeknownst to the three men, a dark shadow was watching from the kitchen, hiding behind the kitchen island.

Gar stood up and threw his controller down. His character once again died, and a few seconds later the game ended, meaning that he lost.

"I have too kissed a girl."

"Who? Come on, fess up Beast Boy."

"You don't know her."

The shadow in the kitchen stood up, clearly startled, quickly crouching down again before being seen.

"Oh, that's convenient!" Cyborg needled him. "An imaginary girlfriend! Hey, I got like ten of those!"

"Jill isn't imaginary."

"You mean Jill Jackson? From Los Angeles?" Robin asked, sounding surprised.

"You know Jill?" Gar asked in an astonished voice.

Robin sighed. "I've never met her. When we were forming the team I did a background check on you."

"A background check!? Why? I was in the Doom Patrol!"

"That was your story, I had to verify it."

"After we fought the Gordanians, and you didn't trust me? You anal retentive son of a bitch!"

"Look, I'm sorry; I … I had just left Batman and … look I'm sorry. Anyway, I found out where you were going to school and who were your classmates. Your file says that you and Jill were close, but not that she was your girlfriend."

"You guys are assholes. Just … get out of here, I'll wash the stupid dishes."

Robin rubbed the back of his neck and made eye contact with Cyborg, who subtly nodded. They left without saying a word. Gar sat back down on the couch and buried his face in his hands. He sniffled and that's when he smelled it: it was unmistakable.

"I know you're here."

Raven stood up and walked towards the couch, sitting down next to him.

"For a moment I thought you were going to tell them."

"You made me promise I wouldn't … did you know that they spied on me and did a background check, like I was some kind of criminal?"

She shook her head. "No, I didn't. That was low. I know he never looked into my background, which is fortunate."

"Huh?"

"Zatanna has known for a long time that I'm a demon. Since before I came to Jump."

"Half demon." He corrected her. "And my secret girlfriend since we got back from Tokyo three years ago."

"Gar, thanks for not telling them."

"I know I promised you, and I won't break that promise. But it's getting old."

"I know, and I understand. Please be patient with me … some day ..."

"I know."

She took his hand. "I'll help you clean up."

"Thanks. It's no big deal. I just have to rinse the dishes and load them into the dishwasher."

"It'll go by quicker with two pairs of hands."

They began to work on the pile of dirty dishes. Raven rinsed and he loaded the dishwasher. They worked in silence until Raven cleared her throat.

"So, who's Jill Jackson?"

"She's no one."

"That's not true. Robin's heard of her. Just how close were you to her?"

He frowned. "It's none of your business."

"What did you say?" She growled.

"She was just a school friend. OK?" He snapped at her.

Raven frowned. "Looks like I hit a nerve."

He glared at her "Yeah, you did!"

She calmed herself. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

He sighed. "You didn't … they did."

"Gar, they were teasing you, but it wasn't malicious."

He shook his head. "You don't get it."

She bit her lower lip before replying. "I don't get it. I'll be the first to admit that I can be clueless about these things. Please explain it to me."

He loaded the last dish into the washer and closed it, pressing the start button.

"I'm a loser."

"Say what? You are not a loser. You're a super hero and my boyfriend."

"I've always been a loser with women. Jill friend zoned me. Terra betrayed me. If it wasn't for you, I'd be batting 0.000."

"I understand; but you're mistaken. Terra was the loser, not you. I can't speak for Jill since I never met her; but if she couldn't see how wonderful you are, then she's also a loser."

"You used to hate me."

"I never hated you. I did find you annoying, and I had issues, which finally went away with my father. If anyone was a loser, it was me. I fell for a lying son of a bitch dragon like a chump. That's a loser."

"He took advantage of you, he was a manipulator. But me, I can't even tell anyone that you're my girlfriend."

Raven silently pondered his words, then took his hand.

"I'm sorry, I promise that will soon change. Let's go to my room."

He had heard that promise before, but as the saying went "Beggars can't be choosers". If she dumped him he'd have nothing … and besides … he did love her.

"Sure, I'd like that."

Raven swirled her cape and they were engulfed in darkness, which lasted only a few seconds. They materialized in her room.

It was dark. Raven would usually wave her arm and several candles would light. This time she made a small gesture with her hand and a single candle lit, on her nightstand. She removed her cape and kicked off her boots.

This was standard procedure before a make out session, except for the single candle. She was going to make up it to him, again. Well, he couldn't complain, Raven might appear emotionless, but she was very good kisser, and she would allow him to, as she would say, lovingly grope her. And he knew that she really did love him, in her own Raven kind of way.

"Gar, we've been together for three years now, which for super heroes is a long time. There are no guarantees for what the future has in store. "

"Uh huh, yeah, three years."

"I really want for us to come out, no more secrets, but … I think I need a kick in the pants to do that."

He gave her a confused look. "Rave, what are you saying?"

She walked up to him, and she turned around, leaving him facing her back.

"Unzip me."

"What?"

"You know how a zipper works, right?"

"Yeah … did I hear you right?"

"Yes, you did, now unzip me."

He grabbed the zipper's clasp and began to slowly pull it it down, his heart was beating faster with every inch down it came, exposing the silky smooth skin on her back. She then pulled her arms out of the sleeves and her leotard fell to the floor.

Gar often wondered if she wore any undergarments beneath the leotard. Now he knew she didn't. He suddenly realized that he had stopped breathing as he stared at her magnificent and perfectly formed butt.

She then turned around and he thought for a moment that his heart had stopped beating. She wasn't a demoness, Raven was a goddess.

She stood there, looking calm and relaxed. And very naked.

"Rave, are you sure about this? I mean, I always thought we would wait."

"No more waiting, we're telling everyone tomorrow." She said in soft whisper.

"We are? … What exactly are we telling them?" he asked in a hoarse, nearly breathless voice

She took his hand.

"Garfield Mark Logan, I take you as my lawfully wedded husband."

His jaw almost hit the floor, but he quickly recovered. He then smiled and replied.

"Raven Roth, I take you as my lawfully wedded wife."

They exchanged a hug and a kiss.

"Wow! So we're married now?"

"Not yet," she replied. "something's still missing."

"What? What's missing? Do we have to sign any papers" He asked in a confused voice.

She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "No, but we'll take care of the government legalities later, maybe in a brief ceremony with our friends. What's missing right now is that we have to consummate our marriage."

"Oh … yeah .. of course … well, let's get to it." He said in a squeaky voice.

Raven, who was still in her birthday suit, smiled.

"Gar?"

"Yeah?"

"You've forgotten something."

"I have? What?"

She smiled.

"You're still dressed."

THE END


	6. Lord Sicarius

**Author's Note:** This version was made by Lord Sicarius. He has written a couple of delightful one-shots, _Context_ and _Legs_ besides two more multi-chapter fics (he should update _Writing Romance_ already! Hint, hint!)

Curiously enough, a day after he sent me his idea, we had a review from RPGPersona where he proposed much the same thing! I suppose it means great minds think alike. So sit back, relax and enjoy!

-=oOo=-

 **High Stakes**

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the king!"

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

"YEAH! Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

* * *

-=( **Lord Sicarius' Version starts here** )=-

* * *

As soon as those words came out of the cybernetic man's mouth, the changeling completely lost his grip on his controller. The controller fell onto the hard floor with a moderately loud clank, resonating amidst the silence. Cyborg and Robin took a moment to peel their eyes off the TV screen to temporarily inspect the scene unravelling before them.

Beast Boy's face stared off into nothingness; paying no mind to the television as he began to relive certain flashbacks. The longer the older Titans stared at him, the more intense his face looked. His abnormally jade complexion began to show tinges of crimson strewn about. His mouth grew agape, and his eyes started to dilate.

"I… uh, yeah. I mean, of course I have!" Beast Boy rebutted.

A smirk was drawn over Robin's face as he stole a quick glance at Cyborg before looking at Beast Boy.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure the ladies are just _ALL_ over you… you little stud." Robin teased.

With that remark, Cyborg burst out laughing and turned to high five his temporary ally. The two exchanged camaraderie mixed with immense amusement at the leverage they now had on their mutual green friend. If they played their cards right… they might just be able to get him to do more than just the dishes.

The two young adults turned their attention back on the game at hand, earning free kills knowing good and well that Beast Boy was not even involving himself in their match anymore.

The furry green Titan of interest was caught between wanting to immediately explain and rant on how exactly he in fact WAS popular with the ladies, but at the same time wanting to remain silent; as if he had something he didn't want the others to know. His mouth opened and shut to reflect this inner dilemma.

With a swoosh the giant metal doors to the common room slid open as the graceful and sophisticated grey-skinned, purple-haired empath entered the scene. Holding a hard cased book under her arm, the half-demon levitated herself lazily over to the couch conveniently placed next to the one the three males were currently occupying.

"Hey Raven." Robin greeted, eyes never once leaving the TV screen.

"Yo, wassup Rave." Cyborg acknowledged quickly without missing a beat.

Nothing but silence and inner turmoil was coming from the changeling, and to Raven… it seemed rather odd.

"Hey Beast Boy." She said as she attempted to garner his attention.

"Oh, uh… hey Rae." Beast Boy shyly responded.

Raven opened up her book to where her marker was placed, eyes scanning to the paragraph in which she had last left off of previously. As she began to read, she simultaneously observed Beast Boy.

"What's wrong with him?" Raven asked, directing her question to Robin and Cyborg.

"BB's a little ruffled up, after we asked him if he's ever kissed a girl." Cyborg answered with a chuckle.

"Yeah, he has claimed to have kissed one before… but he hasn't exactly been the best at convincing us." Robin added on.

Beast Boy turned and looked at his accusers.

"Dudes! I totally have kissed a girl before! I swear!" He blurted out as he slammed his hands down onto his knees.

"Really now, B? And who exactly was this lucky girl?" Cyborg jibed.

"I'm sorry Beast Boy, but I just don't see you as being the type to man up and get a girl to be that intimate with you." Robin mused.

Raven looked up from her book at gave Robin a stern expression.

"Okay Dick, you know that's not really fair. It took you and Kori forever to get together, or even kiss for that matter. You aren't really the one to talk about manning up." Raven stated.

Robin rubbed the back of his neck, blushing slightly at Raven's blunt but true words.

"Alright, alright. You got me there. But, we are together now aren't we? And I can assure you, I get kissed by her. All the time." Robin finished with a triumphant smile on his face.

Beast Boy's face turned even redder, and he looked away from his street-light colored leader. After a moment of silence, Beast Boy yelled out in frustration.

"I have kissed a girl Robin! And in fact, she even kissed me on her own first!" Beast Boy claimed confidently.

His eyes turned to look at the empath, who while her face was concealed behind her book; her eyes were staring into the very soul of the changeling.

"I mean… I definitely kissed a girl Robin. Whether you or Cy want to believe it or not."

Beast Boy remained staring at Raven, as if asking her a silent question to which she quickly answered with narrowing her eyes.

In the midst of all of this, Robin and Cyborg had already surpassed Beast Boy's tremendous lead, and were starting to pile on points as the changeling's character stayed idle.

"Hey BB? Guess who's gon' be cleaning them dishes tonight?! Not this guy!" Cyborg taunted.

"Heh heh, not this guy either!" Robin snickered as the match came to an end and the scoreboard was displayed.

Cyborg was in first, Robin in second, and Beast Boy…

Dead. Last.

They did it. Their plan worked. Beast Boy was so overwhelmingly distracted by their simple question that he didn't even continue on with the game. The controller was still on the ground, the changeling was still nervously contemplating within himself, and he was drawing a very odd glance from Raven; which could only mean he must have screwed up somehow even more while they were not even paying attention. Still, they were quite curious, and with the way Beast Boy was… he would have already gave some specific example by now. He didn't just, hesitate in backing himself up. Especially when talking about girls and those who he would claim were "fans".

Robin and Cyborg, now satisfied with the outcome of their game, leaned back on the couch and brought their full attention on Beast Boy. He still did not give a full answer, and now they were both too curious to leave it alone.

"So, Beasty. Spill man. Who's this _'girl'_ you've somehow managed to kiss?" Cyborg prodded.

"Yeah for real, spit it out already!" Robin egged on.

"Or, was it one of those anime weeaboo pillows?" Cyborg added, giggling to himself.

"OH! So was that the girl you were talking about from Tokyo?" Robin sneered.

Beast Boy, now full of utter impatience, finally stood to his feet and turned his body directly at Robin and Cyborg.

"Look guys, I really did kiss a girl. But dudes… if I say who it is, I just know for a fact that I'll be killed." Beast Boy stated rather fiercely.

Raven rolled her eyes as she placed the book down on her lap.

"Beast Boy…" She began,

"I'm not finished!" Beast Boy interrupted.

Raven raised an eyebrow; slightly in annoyance, slightly in surprise at his sudden boldness.

"You guys can mock me all you want, but I really did kiss a girl. But if I told you who that girl was, it would ruin the dynamics of our team forever! There would be no going back to normal! Everything would be different, and none of you would ever see us the same! So why don't you all just forget about it, and go celebrate your stupid so-called victory while I am out here cleaning the dishes?!" Beast Boy spat.

" **Beast Boy**." Raven spoke rather harshly.

Being a bit frightened, Beast Boy faced the now agitated empath.

"It's okay… you can tell them." Raven suggested, a little softer than her earlier tone.

"Yeah BB, it's just a simple little kiss. Nothing's gonna weird us out or anything." Cyborg reassured.

"Beast Boy, no one on this team is ever going to judge you. And plus, we're family. Nothing is going to tear us apart or change how much we care for each other. After all, Starfire already helped change our future." Robin added.

Beast Boy sighed and looked at the floor before closing his eyes. This was it, he supposed. There was no going back, no reverting to the way things used to be; nothing was going to keep things from spiraling downward. He was backed into a corner. He just hoped everyone could handle the truth.

" _Starfire…_ " Beast Boy quietly admitted.

"AHA! SEE?! I knew you guys would end up together! Me and Rob always thought you and Raven-

Wait…

Starfire?!" Cyborg blurted out, flabbergasted.

"WHAT." Raven yelled, eyes wide open in disbelief and completely forgetting about the book she was reading.

Robin immediately shot up from the couch, fists at his sides. He was half shocked, and half furious at what he had just thought he heard. He hoped he heard differently, but his hearing was very keen and very attuned; as it had to be after training with someone with a high reputation as Batman.

"What... _did you just say?_ " Robin asked behind his teeth.

Beast Boy's eyes remained fixed on the floor, but he opened his mouth a bit wider so everyone could hear him with absolute clarity.

"Starfire. She wanted to learn Swahili, and since she knew that I was bilingual and very fluent in Swahili… she asked if I could teach her. I didn't think anything of it, so I said yes. As soon as I said it, she flung herself into my arms and slapped her lips onto mine. I swear I didn't want to take anything out of it… but I kind of did um… kiss her back. It completely escaped me for the moment that Star learns languages through lip contact." Beast Boy explained with nervousness in his voice.

"HOLD UP." Raven commanded, eyes still wide as she stood up.

She walked up to Beast Boy stiffly, and grabbed him by the collar and raising him off the ground slightly. Robin walked up beside the empath, a vein clearly visible on his forehead. Cyborg was so dumbfounded that he was holding his head in his hand, trying to process everything that had just transpired.

"Greetings friends!"

Everyone turned and looked at the woman of the hour entered the common room, flying around gleefully.

"It is so good to see everyone! I wish you all the good afternoon! What are all of you up to on this glorious day?" Starfire asked joyfully.

THE END.


	7. Lou Buggins

**Author's Note:** This version was made by Lou Buggins! A great friend, a great writer and a great person! So waste no more time and check out her profile, you'll find lots of good stuff there. It's difficult for me to select a favorite among her works, but I must say _Raven's Revenge_ has me at the edge of my seat, drooling for an update!

-=oOo=-

 **High Stakes**

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the king!"

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

"YEAH! Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

* * *

-=( **Lou Buggins' Version starts here** )=-

* * *

"Huh?" The changeling turned his head to face the mechanical man beside him, his brows knotted in confusion. On the screen, Garfield's character came to a sudden stop. In his hesitation, Robin's character jumped out from behind some barrels and shot his FAD assault rifle directly at the younger man's avatar, resulting in his termination.

Garfield growled as he dropped his controller in his lap and fell back against the couch with his arms in the air.

"What the hell?" He shouted at the others in the room.

Cyborg smirked and proclaimed a "Booya!" as he high-fived the boy wonder to his left.

"You dudes cheated!" The green one accused as he sent an angry gaze their way.

"No way, Grass Stain! Rob beat you fair and square." Cyborg reasoned with a gesture to the raven-haired boy in question.

"That's right, Beast Boy. You should have not let yourself get distracted," Robin agreed with a grinning nod.

"I wouldn't have been distracted if bucket head over here didn't try to play dirty!"

Cyborg mocked a gasp. "Dirty? All I did was ask you a simple, innocent little question."

Garfield rolled his emerald eyes and muttered under his breath a "whatever" before grabbing his controller again. "Let's just keep going. One kill isn't enough to put either of you on top."

"Maybe not, but you've just lost all your equipment, so good luck keeping your high score now." Robin accepted the challenge as he gripped his own controller.

"Wait! Hold up!" Cyborg interrupted, his large, cybernetic hands waving them to stop. "You never answered the question, man."

Garfield looked away from his older friend with an embarrassed look on his face and a red blush painting his cheeks. "You know the answer, Cy."

"Yeah, but I wanna hear ya say it!" The dark-skinned man laughed.

Robin frowned at Cyborg's antics, but he didn't put a stop to this for a simple reason. He wanted to know the answer.

With both guys staring him down, Garfield rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous habit and threw his head back with a groan. "Ugh…fine…yes, I've kissed someone. Happy?"

Cyborg laughed hard at this, his metal hands clutching his sides and his large body shaking with each chuckle. The changeling seemed peeved by the reaction, but also appeared to have expected it. Which prompted the question to pop into Robin's mind. "What was he missing?"

"Uh, guys?"

The two young adults turned to their leader. Robin looked back at them with confusion, although it was hard to tell when his eyes were hidden behind his mask.

"What's so funny?"

Garfield and Cyborg shared a look, as if they just realized their little moment was actually an inside joke. Gar paled when he also connected the dots, and realized this would mean they would now have to let Robin in on it. Meaning, one extra person to tease him.

Cyborg just smirked as he prepared to recall the tale.

"Alright Rob, so get this, do ya remember when about six months ago, when Star tried to borrow Rae's hand mirror and instead of accidentally getting sucked in, some of her emotions jumped out?"

Robin grimaced at the memory. "Yeah I remember. Poor Kori was all upset because of that ordeal. Not too mention the tower was left a mess afterwards."

Cyborg nodded as he continued. "Yeah exactly, but you didn't see how Grass stain and I got the purple one."

"Okay Cy, I don't think Rob really needs to hear this." Gar interrupted leaning forward to put himself in between the two.

"Sorry Beast Boy, but now I've got to know this story." Robin said as he pushed the younger man out of his way.

"So as I was sayin'. That purple emoticlone thing was all over BB! She was huggin' him and, playin' with his hair and, complimentin' him. It was crazy weird. But she wouldn't stay still long enough for me to tap her with the magic mirror and send her back to Rae's mind. So BB here… he grabbed her by the shoulders and… she ended up kissin' him…and he just stood there with his eyes wide open… it was so funny I almost forgot to take advantage of her distraction!" When Cyborg finally finished he ended up doubled over, laughing his head off. Almost literally.

Robin thought over the story his amused friend had told him. "So wait. That means that Gar…your first kiss… was with one of Raven's _emotions?_ "

Gar fidgeted in his seat uncomfortably. "Yeah, I guess you could say that," he mumbled sheepishly.

It took Robin a few moments to process the new information, but once it finally did hit him, a wide smile grew on his face and he threw his head back laughing like a little kid. "Your first kiss… was with Raven's emoticlone!" Robin said in between laughter.

Now that both his so called "friends" were practically rolling on the floor laughing at his expense, Gar tossed the controller on the coffee table and wormed his way around them.

"Where ya goin' BB?" Cyborg called after him.

"Yeah, you leave now, you forfeit the game!" Robin reminded him.

The jade-skinned young lad turned to them and shrugged. "Don't care!" he replied and made his way out the door.

Walking alone down the hall, he came to a stop at a very familiar bedroom. Looking over his shoulder to make sure no one had followed him, he proceeded to punch in the code that allowed him access into the room. The door slid open and then closed behind him. He stomped over to the bed that awaited for him and threw himself down onto the silky sheets.

"I hate them!" he stated a matter-of-factly.

Another body repositioned itself so that it was now hovering over him. Short violet hair fell over the figure's rounded face, but from his vantage point, he could still easily make out the features of her expressionless face.

"No you don't," she said in a similar fashion.

He let out a defeated sigh, knowing she was right. "No, I don't. But now Rob knows what happened on that day and now they're both teasing me about it."

"Can I please tell them the truth? I'm tired of them thinking that was my first kiss."

Raven blinked her large amethyst eyes at him, then with a sigh of her own, she leaned down and pressed a gentle, lovely kiss against his lips. When she pulled up, she ran a comforting hand through his fluffy green hair.

"We know the truth. That's all that matters. Our first kiss was right here, in this room, as were the next 203 that followed."

At this, Garfield sat up and gazed at the empath in amazement. "Aww Babe, you keep count?" he asked her in a surprised voice.

Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "What have I told you about that nickname?" She dodged the question.

"Aww Hon, you keep count?" he rephrased with a playful smirk.

"That one isn't much better."

Garfield leaned closer to her, his breath tickling her nose. "That's adorable, Mama."

"Mm." Was the only comeback she could make as he molded their lips together in a much firmer and passionate kiss. Their lips moved in sync, and his tongue brushed against her bottom lip, begging to be allowed entrance. At this she pulled away and tried to catch her breath. "Don't you have dishes to wash?" she deadpanned as she kept her gaze off of him and his delicious mouth.

Knowing she was just waiting until a better time to engage in a full on make-out session, Garfield jumped out of the bed and made his way for the exit.

"Yep, and it was worth every kiss!" He winked at her as he stumbled out the door.


	8. Chaotic Coffee Bean

**Author's Note:** This version was made by Chaotic Coffee Bean! Check out their profile and their great ongoing story, _The Bucket List._ It's a wonderful BBRae tale and I hope they'll be updating it soon, because I'm really hyped to see what will happen!

-=oOo=-

 **High Stakes**

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the king!"

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

"YEAH! Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

* * *

-=( **Chaotic Coffee Bean** **'s Version starts here** )=-

* * *

Beast Boy had been expecting filthy tactics, sneers, and comments during a high-risk game such as this. But did Cyborg have to play so _dirty_?

"Uhh….kiss…a girl?" the shape shifter's voice came out in a high squeak, not at all like his previous confident and boisterous yells of victory.

"Yes! Kiss. Make out. Smooch. You _do_ know what kissing is, dontcha?" sneered Robin.

"I-I-I know what kissing is!" yelled Beast Boy angrily, trying his best to ignore his friend's attempts to embarrass him. Had his palms always been this sweaty? He internally cursed himself for the butterflies that suddenly attacked his stomach.

"Aww, is the poor wittle beastie boo sad he's never kissed a girl?" sniggered Cyborg, earning a roaring laugh from the Titan leader.

Suddenly the heavy metal doors to the common room slid open, bringing in a loud melody of giggles. It is not every day Titans Tower had visitors over, especially not beautiful, strong, fierce female Titans, but today was a special day. Today was Starfire's birthday, and being Starfire, the queen of parties, she demanded to celebrate with all the female Titans in true human style: with a "Party of the Slumber".

The teen heroines walked into the common room, chatting happily, each wearing matching silk pajamas that Starfire insisted on buying for her friends so they could "be the matching".

Well…pajamas is a loose term. The bright pink shorts were _short_ , revealing a generous amount of beautifully sculpted legs and just the right amount of backside. The skimpy spaghetti strap blouses were just revealing enough to make any hormonal teenage boy squirm, hero or not. With every movement, the blouse rose to expose a tantalizing peek of the girls' bare stomachs. The very low neckline proved to be deliciously teasing, hugging the girls' every curve.

The three male Titians were quickly reminded just _how_ high the stakes truly were. Lose the game, and you were stuck for hours cleaning the massive pile of grimy dishes encrusted with the putrid stench of Starfire's favorite Tamaranean birthday dishes and Raven's hellish attempt at baking a birthday cake. Not to mention the second pile of old dirty dishes that had accumulated over the past week. Win the game, and you got the once in a lifetime chance to ogle the beautiful Titan girls in their skimpy pajamas while enjoying all the activities they had planned for the night.

Jinx took the lead ahead of the group of girls and snapped her fingers with flair, "Boys! We're ready to party, get your sorry butts out of he-"

Her voice fell to deaf ears.

"I HAVE TOO KISSED A GIRL!" Hands shaking, Beast Boy looked in horror as he slowly lost his hard-earned lead in the game. He could feel his face heat up with frustration and embarrassment.

"Oh yeah? Prove it! Who'd you kiss?" yelled Robin, using the opportunity to blast Beast Boy's character to smithereens.

"CUT IT OUT!"

"Friends! What is happening?" asked a wide-eyed Starfire.

Cyborg and Robin looked at each other maliciously. Embarrassing Beast Boy in front of each other was one thing, but to do so in front of a crowd of beautiful girls and sentence him to a video game demise? This was too good to be true.

"I was just asking the little Greenbean here if he's ever kissed a girl," laughed Cyborg.

There was just a second of pause before Starfire erupted into a fit of giggles, followed by Robin's and Cyborg's roaring laughter.

Poor Beast Boy had never felt more humiliated, not even Robin's grueling training sessions made him sweat as much as he was sweating now. Should he put himself out of his own misery and quit the game?

"Cyborg and Robin, why are you laughing?" asked Starfire innocently.

The two Titans stole a quick glance at the alien, confused, before Robin replied.

"Well…because Beast Boy has obviously never kissed a girl Star. It's funny."

Starfire giggled again, slowly floating up into the air, "But Friend Beast Boy _has_ done the kissing!"

"Come on Starfire," chucked Cyborg, "we both know that's not true."

At this Starfire flew into the air happily, a slight blush staining her cheeks, "Oh but he has! With me!"

The three boys' fingers, who just seconds ago were furiously clicking buttons for dear virtual life, froze instantly, before another round of giggles could be heard.

Cyborg's robotic brain was replaying exactly what he had just heard. Had he _heard_ correctly? Beside him, Beast Boy's jaw dropped comically low, his stomach churning. His hands were so slick with sweat that his controller slipped right to the ground, leaving his video game character forgotten. Robin's head whipped around so hard and fast, it was a wonder it did not fly straight off his shoulders. His face turned an unnatural shade of blue and purple as he gasped for breathe.

"Starfire…kiss…what..noo…kiss…beastboy…my…kissing…WHAT!"

"Why yes Robin! Beast Boy and I have done the kissing!"

"BUT STARFI-"

Before Robin could explode into a fit of rage, a soft chuckle came from the group of girls.

"Damn! Looks like little BB over there gets around!," chimed Bumblebee with a loud laugh. "He's kissed me too, and girl let me tell you, that boy sure _knows_ how to kiss!"

If it weren't for his robotic parts, Cyborg was sure he'd have a stroke. The plastic controller made an audible crack as his hands tensed dangerously from disbelief and horror.

"SAY WHAT?!"

"You heard me, Sparky," replied Bumblebee as she rolled her eyes, "His was the best kiss I've ever had,"

She continued with a blush, before sending a flirtatious wink to a dumbfounded Beast Boy.

Beast Boy's mind raced as he threw cautious glances at the guys next to him, hoping they wouldn't decide that now was the perfect time to punch him out for apparently kissing their not-so-secret crushes. Were these girls insane? What would possess them to admit this in front of _them?_

Starfire broke down into another fit of giggles, "Oh this is marvelous!" she shrieked, "We are doing the bonding over a boy! Has anyone else done the kissing of friend Beast Boy?"

"We made out in a closet once," shrugged Jinx.

Raven rolled her eyes at the boys, face as bored and serious as ever, "We've kissed. No big deal."

Starfire flew around the room happily, "It appears Beast Boy really likes doing the kissing! Oh please, we _must_ do the girl talk about this while we partake in the partying!"

She quickly turned to the frozen, dumbfounded boys who were still too shocked to react, "Friend Beast Boy please do they partying with us! We can talk more about all the kissing you do!"

"Well hurry up then Beast Boy, we don't have all day," drawled Raven impatiently.

Seconds later, the group of girls walked down the hallway, laughing hysterically.

"…and _that_ girls, is how you make a boy jealous. I guarantee they'll be asking you out and proving they are as manly and as good a kisser than the green one any day now," grinned Jinx evilly, waving her hand aside as if it were no small thing.

Behind them, Raven smiled up at Beast Boy before grabbing his hand and giving him a quick peck on the lips, "And that's also how you get your secret boyfriend out of dish duty."


	9. obsidian dreamer

**Author's Note:** This version is quite a bit longer - and darker - than the previous ones, but that's the whole idea of this experiment, to try out as many different viewpoints as possible. It was written by **obsidian dreamer;** he's new on the TT scene, having authored a long one-shot _Jump City - Doomsday_ that you should definitely check out. Let's hope he'll grace us with more of his work soon!

-=oOo=-

 **High Stakes**

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the king!"

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

"YEAH! Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.

The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…

"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"

* * *

-=( **obsidian dreamer** **'s Version starts here** )=-

* * *

"...ever kissed a girl?"

"Nope, never."

All movement below two separate necks ceased, neither Robin nor Cyborg able to command their fingertips as in horrible tandem their heads rotated towards the third player, not seeing or caring as the soft hoot of a pixelated grenade launcher was drowned out a second later by an explosion and shower of virtual gibs,

"Woohoo, two-for-one; better get the marigolds ready guys, dried tofu doesn't come off easy," Beast Boy exulted, regarding them both with a grin before sobering slightly at their awed expressions, "what, something on my incredibly-handsome face?"

"You, uh," Cyborg began, not sure quite how to proceed, "never?" The changeling raised a verdant eyebrow,

"Did I stutter - never have, hopefully never will - we carrying on or you throwing in this towel and picking up that one?" He nodded towards the empty kitchen, catching a glimpse of a familiar figure lurking in the doorway to the main corridor before Robin broke in,

"What happened to chicks digging the ears?" Beast Boy merely laughed, no malice behind it that the junior detective could pick up on,

"Good one Rob, had me going for a second there," Robin swapped a sideways look with Cyborg, the older teen also looking both nonplussed and concerned at their young friends' attitude, "you saw through... you did see through it right? Oh God," the changeling looked between the Boy Wonder and the mechanical man amazed, "you actually thought I meant all that stuff?"

"You actually don't?" Cyborg riposted, game controller in one hand and all thoughts of teasing gone from his head; never once had he imagined his green friend hadn't considered himself the good lords' gift to the opposite sex, "Why wouldn't you, you're..."

"Green, I have fangs and my ears are pointed," Beast Boy cut in, not noticing the shrouded figure wince, "on top of that I'm short, on the scrawny side and competing with a six-plus half-mechanical tech wizard and Jump Citys' third most eligible bachelor, and that came out of those magazines Star loves before you say anything Rob." Fighting off a blush at the thought of that idea being both published and attracting a fan-club (memories of Kitten were bad enough), the team leader tried to refute at least part of the other boys' statement but found himself mute, his bacon only saved when Cyborg leapt into the fray,

"When do you read Stars' magazines?"

"I keep her company when she bathes Silkie, read out the fashion bits while she's wrestling the little guy into the tub. That article popped up about a month ago and we both had a good laugh, I think she cut it out in the end," the animorph shrugged, "so my chances weren't exactly high to start with."

"But, those girls..."

"Think I'm cute, or exotic sometimes, not sexy."

"Even in Japan?"

"Especially in Japan; I'm fun to snap a photo with, not take home to the parents." Cyborg licked his dry lips, preparing to venture into dangerous territory,

"Not," he began carefully, trying to judge the harm he might do, "not even, Terra?"

Apart from an on-screen misfire nothing much changed; Beast Boys' eyes closed for a second at the name and pain shone within them when they re-opened but it was swiftly subsumed, the changeling shaking his head as a near-silent breath was exhaled from someone nearby,

"No," he admitted quietly, "we never made it that far. In hindsight that was a crush, an unhealthy one on my part – I wish it had ended better but it would never have ended well regardless of her choices."

"Damn BB, that really blows," Cyborg admitted after a seconds' thought; much as he wanted to, he couldn't refute the green beans' logic and, in a way, was proud he wasn't hung up on the whole thing, especially the skinny blonde who'd almost destroyed them all and him especially, "don't give up though, she's out there somewhere."

"Yeah," the shapeshifter snorted, "hopefully a long way away."

"That's not helpful B," Robin cut in, his tone sharp but not unkind and, in respect to this, the changeling softened his tone somewhat during the explanation,

"No but it's true Robin; if I find her a lot of people are going to be in danger so maybe it's better I never do." Behind his mask Robin blinked in surprise,

"Uh, what? Beast Boy that doesn't make any sense."

The younger Titan said nothing, merely regarded them for a long second, head tilted slightly as though weighing something up in his mind. The gears in his head were all but audibly grinding as the silence persisted and Cyborg was on the verge of going full big brother mode before the impasse was breached, though the sigh that preceded the metamorphs' next words seemed as alien to his normal joviality as Starfires' cooking was to a human palate.

"Maybe not to you but you don't know me like I do, neither of you do," before five organic and one cybernetic eye Beast Boy seemed to change, to age, the harlequin doffing his mask to reveal a visage older and more careworn than any of the observers had imagined he could bear, "I'm more and less than human guys. I'm not just part-animal, I'm every animal all at once and because of that my instinct is to look out for you all; it's part of everything I do. It's worse on the streets, when we're duking it out with the bad guys; I see them attack any of you and it takes everything I've got not to go for the throat. Big, small, carnivore, herbivore, insects, doesn't matter - almost every beast protects its kin and that urge, kill to protect, will only get stronger as I get older. You've seen it out there, you must have; I hang back more now because I can't fully trust myself not to go all in when you guys are in danger and that's as things stand. If I found a, sorry to put it crudely, but a mate, someone I loved," he shook his head solemnly, "no, there'd be blood all over Jump Citys' streets when it happened. I know the business we're in; people get hurt; but if I saw or maybe even thought that could happen to her the Titans would probably be looking at their first KS."

A silence followed those words; a KS, or killer-super, was a figure of awe, dread and usually tragedy in the metahuman world and, moulded by the Batman, Robin instinctively distrusted those with blood on their hands. The thought that Beast Boy had been silently wrestling with these demons and he'd noticed nothing cut to the quick, wounding so deeply he barely heard Cyborg muscle into the conversation,

"But, but you do fight, you've seen us all take hits; hell last week Cinderblock was using my arm as a backscratcher and you didn't blow up!"

"Because I've been trained not to," Beast Boy said darkly, tapping his temple as Robin felt a pit open in his stomach, "you know where I came from right, that this isn't my first dance in a team?"

"The Doom Patrol," Robin husked, face whitening as he put two and two together, "Mento, he...?"

"He helped, to a degree, but at the end of the day he wanted, needed almost, a soldier who could do what the rest of the team couldn't. He explained in the end, with Elasti-Girl, before I left and I did leave freely; rumours of us parting on bad terms are mostly just rumours. It came down to team dynamics; I could and still can do what Steve; oh don't look at me like that Rob, it's not like the Patrol is big into the whole secret identity thing; wanted but Rita said I was too young and in the end Larry and Cliff agreed. So we went our separate ways with a caveat; the spot's still open but I can't take it, not until I'm old enough to legally drink – Rita thought that'd give me time to see if I could find a balance that'd be accepted by heroes outside the Patrol."

"He wanted you to kill didn't he?" Cyborg stated, his tone hard but not quite accusing as his eye glowed a dim, baleful red,

"If necessary," Beast Boy's answer was likewise stony as he defended his former pack, "it's not the first option but if it gets the mission done we left bodies behind, ours and theirs. And don't knock what Steve did for me Tin-can; on his best day the guy's a slave-driver to rival Robin on his worst but thanks to his emotional training I was able to get the worst of the urges under control growing up – did you never wonder why I don't use more lethal animals in a fight?" Cyborg snorted in disbelief,

"More lethal – dude you're a T-Rex half the time!"

"Yeah, big, stompy, see it coming a mile off – how about a fruit fly? Go into someone's ear, or better the nose, curl up against the eardrum or into the sinuses and de-morph – gory but no-one's getting up afterwards," Beast Boy's eyes were jade stones – hard, unfeeling and all three of his audience knew he was talking from, if not experience, then certainly in-depth theoretical discussion, "hand to hand go big, wait for a mistake, then into a black mamba or Australian brown snake, one bite and they're history and that's if I'm stupid enough to have a fair fight. Evil villain relaxing on his yacht; cling on as a barnacle, wait until he goes for a dip and box-jellyfish the bastard, or go great white if I want to make a statement. Villain hideout full of goons, no-one saw the little green frog go for a dip in the beer keg or crawl over the silverware; you'll know about it when everyone drops dead of toxicosis. And getting into places, especially if some super-idiot tries the classic kidnapping-for-leverage trick," the laugh was ugly, brutal and made the hairs on the back of Robins' neck stand up as everything he thought he knew about the youngest member of his team was shaken to dust, "they'd never see me coming. A flea in someone's hair, a tick on the bottom of your shoe – gene-scanners can't pick me up, according to Steve most mentalists can't usually tune into animal thought patterns and for IR most of my venomous forms are as warm as their surroundings. There's no mercy in the animal kingdom; you kill or you're lunch; and I barely trust myself enough not to follow those instincts when you guys, my friends, are in danger never mind a potential lover. So no, I've never kissed anyone and a lot of villains out there should be grateful because me not getting any is keeping some of them alive – as soon as that state of affairs croaks and they put a foot wrong," he shrugged, his more animalistic unconcern with death apparent in his final words delivered not as a threat, or a promise, merely a statement of fact, "most likely so do they."

Silence fell over the lounge, even the Gamestation falling into standby mode as the others present reeled from the bombshell that their friend had dropped on them. Looking to give them some space just as Steve and Rita had him some years ago and mindful of a prior appointment Beast Boy made to take his leave before another voice, this one quieter and graver, raised a salient point,

"You control the Beast though Garfield; I understand your… concerns but that you keep him restrained shows the man is stronger than the animal in you." Stiffening slightly at his name the lime-skinned Titan glanced across at his grey counterpart, realising that on this night of truths another myth would have to be shattered,

"You're wrong Raven, I don't control him the way you do Rage or your powers; he's part of me yes but he can't be tamed, only channelled. It's an… understanding, I suppose, another one I've made with myself; first time he came out he was needed and I didn't really know what I was dealing with, ever since then I let him out when it's safe."

"Safe?" Cyborg parroted, numb from his little brothers' dispassionate dissection of his thought process and now torn between disbelief and laughter, "Last time we saw him we were being overrun by Trigon's fire demons green-bean, how was that safe?!"

"Because there weren't any repercussions," both Raven and Cyborg gave their leader their attention as Robin locked eyes with the familiar stranger across the settee, his honed mind fitting the pieces together into a picture as scary as it was surreal, "against normal leg-breakers, or even the H.I.V.E. and the like the Beast would cause a blood-bath and make the front pages, and Slade and Brother Blood are both clever enough to use it ripping apart their robots to press for legal controls against the 'wild' Titan. Trigon didn't have that defence and against Adonis it was necessary, we needed your Beast to take down his," massaging his eyes through his mask the Titan leader drew in a breath, levelling his gaze at Beast Boy again as the magnitude of what the youngest member of his team endured for the rest of them began to sink in, "you're always protecting us aren't you, with the Beast and from what it could do legally if not physically?" Beast Boy's answering smile was genuine, if tinged with sadness, as he nodded,

"It's in the genes, literally in my case, and until I can keep it there fully it's better to avoid the temptation – Beast isn't the worst really. I could kill idiots like Rancid, Punk and the rest easily but it's not worth the pain it would cause you all – a lover though, a girl I kissed? One face launched a thousand ships, one kiss for me might trigger a massacre; better to have never loved than risk that, certainly for now."

For a long moment silence billowed around them all, the tower ominously still apart from the changeling stretching off and casting an eye out the window, judging the time and deciding he should start off. With this in mind he stood up and place the controller on the seat next to him as he made to leave,

"Well boys I leave you to the washing, I'm gonna grab some sky to clear my head, I'll get something while I'm out." Taking their nods as acquiescence he moved the massive window making up the tower side and cracked it open, preparing to morph when the silence was broken, perhaps the merest hint of a quaver in Raven's voice as she watched his back from under her hood,

"You, and the Beast, you protected me though? You're always there even when I threatened to send you to the darkest dimension I could find." Beast Boy took a breath, then another to prepare himself; better than me most he knew how much words, especially ill-chosen words, could hurt,

"We're always going to be there Raven, for you and the others," he didn't look over his shoulder, not trusting himself to stand the possible sight of her hurt by his words, "when it's safe or necessary it'll be him, until then you'll have to keep putting up with me." Seeing his friend preparing to leave Robin rushed one final question, knowing what had been said was Beast Boys' secret but also taught by bitter experience that secrets between the team almost always led to disaster,

"Should we tell Star?" The changeling looked over his shoulder, a slight smile playing over his lips as he began to shrink,

"She knows; she's a warrior and a princess, we talk a lot during Silkies' baths."

With that his form shifted and a green gull shot from the Titan tower a second later, cawing into the fading evening light as it sped towards the city, not seeing the blur of blackness behind him as one of the assembled tried to centre herself and the other two tried in vain to consider what step to take next following this upheaval, unaware that their friend was already moving ahead with plans of his own to assuage his genetic duty to those he considered kin.

Dusk was truly falling as Beast Boys' humanoid feet touched the ground again, his aerial route more circumspect than before and his senses alert as he waited; as was standard for the Patrol, assume all contacts are followed until proven otherwise. Shifting into a dog form he immediately caught a familiar smell in the breeze and slunk into the shadows, watching through his worse-than-human vision the other person picking their way through the construction site with an easy grace that belied their civilian attire. Giving a low but non-threatening growl to alert them to his presence, Beast Boy sat down and let his tongue loll out as she heaved herself under the sheet of tarpaulin covering the top of the partially-built warehouse, out of view of prying eyes,

"Put it away," she snorted, brushing dirt off her hands and looking down with distaste as he resumed his normal form, "another pair of shoes on your bill."

"And board and lodging for your little Titan bro doesn't count for diddly?" The ice-blue eye he could see narrowed while the other, either a contact lens or glass, didn't change as the taller woman shook her mane of platinum hair out from the baseball cap that had concealed it whilst flipping a carton of cigarettes from her pocket as Beast Boy wrinkled his nose,

"Do you have to; those things kill you know?"

"Wasn't planning on living long," the girl shot back, lighting a white stick and blowing a cloud of smoke in his direction, "any news?"

"Nothing yet, he's gone too quiet. Rob reckons he might, might," he was quick to make that point clear as her eye narrowed again, "have skipped town but it's unlikely."

"Very, he never leaves a job half-finished," she said with a jolt of recollection, old scars aching despite herself, "lucky Slade didn't use the serum on your leader, you'd never have got him back."

"You'd be surprised, Rob's tough but anyway, back on topic, you called. What's the hit this time?" A cold smile split thin lips as a small paper square was unfolded from her back pocket,

"Blood's looking to expand."

"Really?" Suddenly his smile echoed her own as his eyes traced her hand-drawn map, "Oh, a rushed job; not many bots, a few alarms, almost no automated turrets, heck even some H.I.V.E. brought in for security – tsk, tsk, a definite F for this one Headmaster."

"The power supply's external and lots of unsecured security ports for a download. Got the calling card?" Beast Boy grinned, holding out a small fragment of black cloth and a few spent photon cells he'd filched from the Titans' trophy cabinet,

"Almost too easy, he chickens out as soon as Rae hits the scene these days. Good thing the good doctor has an old feud with the Academy, just remember to give them a bit of a light show?" She snorted, flicking out her cigarette,

"I'm no amateur, unlike the goons that followed me when I was 'jogging'." Having seen how his current partner usually obtained her information Beast Boy winced on their behalf,

"Badly maimed?"

"Mostly their pride, one won't walk straight for a week," she stated, a note of pride in her voice before she suddenly stared him down, "but I need news on him soon."

"I'm working on it and if anyone would know first it'll be us even if people remember seeing you around; he's obsessed with our leader after all. We'll have to be quick though, look into burner phones or something; all his plans are tight and there's never much time to react."

"He's a perfectionist."

"Amen to that; I'll find a way to alert you soon as we get news, that way you can be in the right place at the right time for some father-daughter bonding." Her eye narrowed at his teasing,

"I could kill you eight different ways from here."

"Likewise, and that's without morphs," the two held a stare-down for a second before the taller of the two lit her second cigarette of the meeting, "anyway, we go in at what, eight?"

"Half-past, just after the shifts change; standard drill, you disable the power and scramble things up inside, I go intruder."

"Intruder front door," the changeling chortled as she nodded, "never change Rose. You manage to get a decent virus for his systems; Cyborg never touches them, risk of contamination." She nodded, holding out a pen drive,

"Nasty hydra this one, goes in, eats everything and leaves a feedback trail, we should be able to pick up any nearby Blood hideouts with it. Guy who programmed it called it Grey Haze."

"Lovely; how'd you get it?"

"Hacker board; coded the basics and asked for help fine-tuning."

"The chans work for free now?"

"Use a female avatar and escalate the first guy with a decent resume to drop the TOGTFO line; neckbeards work for boobs. What," as he groaned and slapped a hand over his face there was an almost predatory look in her single eye, "you've never thought about asking for a picture?"

"From you?" She nodded, "I did, then I chose life."

"Proof you've got a brain," she chuckled darkly, though recalling some of their earlier and more fraught negotiations a glimmer of respect entered her mind, "though stupid Doomers tend to die fast. Still can't believe you ran with them, or call one of them mother."

"There are worse families to have," he countered, his verbal opponent taking the blow in her stride, "and anyway I'm only here now thanks to Mento. Him downloading the known information of all supervillains and their associates operating in this part of the world directly into my brain let me pick you out as soon as you arrived."

"Luck," she spat sourly, recalling the unpleasant surprise she'd had upon arriving in her small bedsit after finally tracking down her estranged family only to see a green cat on the windowsill looking at her expectantly, "hate the stuff."

Fortunately the Titan had come alone and with an offer, a good one as he'd explained in the open a few days later, and now some months later she was almost a million dollars richer, had access to superhero information about her ultimate goal and a lot of the other Jump City villains were having serious issues with cash flow and other projects. Rose wasn't much of a people-person, her punishing training installing only the bare necessities for human interaction in favour of assassination techniques, but she could see that her new partner covered a lot of her weaknesses at the same time as kept the Titans and other law enforcement off her back by directing her towards villainous targets no-one really cared about. Without him she'd likely have already squared off against the Jump City protectors already, stalling her from confronting her misbegotten sperm-donor so she owed him for that, but exactly what he got out of the deal she'd tried to work out for some time and still couldn't see, so now she made to banish that slight doubt,

"Why are you doing this?" Rummaging in his pocket for his disguise, Beast Boy looked up at her,

"You can't do this alone Rose; I know you're good enough to handle anything Blood's got but you'll need me to…"

"No," she corrected herself, measuring his response in her linear, calculating mind, "I mean this, why are you teaming up with a supervillains daughter? You know this ends with death right, at least Slades or mine when I find him?"

"There's already been death," his reply made even her blink in surprise and her respect for his senses rose another couple of notches as he tapped the side of his nose, "you think I couldn't smell blood on you when we met up afterwards a few times? I'm no Robin or Cy but I'm smart enough to know people hit with blades that sharp usually don't get up again."

"I'm a killer, fine; why are you working with me?" His eyes hardened, emerald reflecting her cold sapphire as he let her in slightly,

"Better them than us."

"Us?"

"The Titans, you or me," he extrapolated, Rose paying attention to the order of his words as much as their meaning, "you're right it'll end in blood one day, either by accident or design. The Titans are heroes, we don't kill, that means we have to get lucky every time; the scum we're up against only have to get lucky once. I'm not running that risk, not with my pack," his thumbs ran across his fingertips, across the small claws she knew were concealed by his gloves, "so we're taking out the bad guys before they can fight my friends." It was a sound plan but still skipped over what was, to her, the most logical course of action,

"Why not cut the head off the snake; you could do it," she back up her query with a pointed fact about his combat potential, waiting for the changelings' answer as Beast Boy fingered his chin, regarding her levelly as he thought how best to answer.

In truth he'd been expecting this question for a while; ever since the formerly tell-tale eye-patch had triggered Mento's implanted debrief the anamorph had found almost exactly what he'd expected to find – Slade, damn his black heart and cold soul, did excellent but incomplete work with his apprentices. Even in his cat form he'd intuitively known she wasn't quite right the same way he'd know if an earthquake was coming and repeated meetings with her had borne this gut instinct out. Everything Rose had ever learned had been for the singular purpose of completing missions, anything outside that narrow focus ignored completely, culminating in the dangerous but oddly broken girl before him; she could lethally poison food using the contents of the average kitchen but lived on take-out because she couldn't cook; she could hack and code passably, and crack security devices par excellence but booting up a GameStation was currently beyond her. It was both scary and sad but was slowly improving; much like Rita with him in the early days, as long as he made and explained his points in a way she could understand she would listen; after he'd pointed out her eyepatch had made her traceable, the next time he'd seen her she'd had much more discrete glass eye in her empty socket. Now it was time for another lesson, another toe-length out of the narrow and blood-choked rut Slade had ploughed for his own flesh and blood, another inch towards his downfall and her freedom from his bale influence,

"I could kill them, you're quite right, but doing that would leave a power vacuum," he began, warming to his subject as he relived one of his favourite uncles' old lessons, "Robotman explained how supervillains work to me. Killing one off and leaving their network; computers, henchmen, molls, rackets, anything like that; intact just means another caped evil-doer swoops in, takes their good work and becomes a bigger threat. You don't assassinate the other sides' generals in a cold war, you take out their support structures," his smile was calculating and Rose found herself warming to his theme as he coached it in a language she could understand, "front companies, inheritances, fraud schemes, gang-banger gangs, robot factories, hell even this possible new school for villainy – wreck the place, leave their mainframe picking zeroes out of its teeth for months, steal anything not nailed down and hand all the evidence to the authorities. Get their financial tootsies in a vice and start squeezing; they'll run off or scream soon enough, and if you can," he nodded at the spent batteries in his hand, "make it look like someone else is doing it."

"Divide and conquer."

"Got it in one," he smiled, grateful to see the expression mirrored slightly on her face, "villains hate each other as much as they hate heroes and that's a big weakness, one we've been hammering since you got here. Some of them are almost ready to tear each other apart now; remember that garage a fortnight ago, how you drove that motorbike through the parking lot while I set the charges?"

"Yes, you said the owner was a villain."

"He is but not a serious one; Ding-Dong's never going to win any prizes but that's not the point," he leant forwards slightly, excitement in his tone as he remembered thumbing the detonator and watching the front automotive repair shop go up in flames, taking with it the car-mad evil-doers' pride and joy, "the treads on your bike matched those used by Johnny Rancid, the spent grenade launcher rounds was a standard trick for him too. Now those two hate each other and Ding-Dong's got a lot of pull with local garage owners; Rancid can't get a squirt of gas within a hundred miles of here and thinks Daddy's just being a punk; while they're squaring off with each other they're not giving us any hassle. It's the same as the Kitten trick, remember?"

"Yes," Rose admitted slowly, trying to follow this, to her, oblique line of reasoning, "I stole her purse and cloned her bank card while she was on a date with that spider-boy, then we used the clone to drain all her accounts. That made her fall out with her boyfriend but why did she blame him; she must have known he didn't do it."

"Because it wasn't her bank card, it was her fathers; the card was made out to a D Walker, Kitten must have borrowed or stolen it for their date," Beast Boy explained, Roses' eyebrow rising as she too recalled that detail, the rest of the story becoming clear as he went one, "after we cloned the card I wiped it clean and handed her purse in to lost property. It had only been gone fifteen minutes at most and she was so grateful to find it she never thought anything of losing it afterwards; the theft took her, and her father more to the point, completely on the hop. I can't prove it, but I'd bet most of his former wealth that when Killer Moth found out he was about ready to disown her – she had to point the finger at Fang either because she genuinely thought he was responsible but couldn't prove it or to save her own skin after she filched her fathers' card. Either way the money's gone, she's grounded forever, Killer Moth's broke and on the rampage after Fang for stealing and breaking his little girls' heart, they're all blaming each other and we made out like bandits with three more villains out the way. Look them in the eye, shake them by the hand then kick them in the balls; one of Mento's old sayings for dealing with supervillains – you understand what it means?"

"Act noble but play dirty," at his nod Rose smiled in fond imagination, "a man I could get on with…"

"Hate to burst your bubble but he's happily married."

"…ha ha," her sardonic tone could have staled bread before she broke it to press on, "but he's right and so are you, though smart villains won't fall for it, Slade won't."

"Probably not, I doubt Blood will either but that's the beauty of it; no villain gets anywhere without pissing off one half a dozen others. Put yourself in Bloods' shoes tonight; someone's got him on the back foot – who is it? Is it Dr Light, someone trying to frame him, or is it a double-bluff of Dr Light getting someone else to do his dirty work and making it look like a frame-up? Who else benefits from him being in a bad way, whose toes has he stomped on recently? What should he do next to shore up and where could the next blow come from, or when? How long can he afford to go incognito, or should he get the next blow in, and how much of a blow would his pride take if Dr Light gets wind of the attack and claims credit for it? And worst come to worst, if he does work out it's a stitch-up, why would he suspect the Titans, who are heroes and too noble to fight dirty, and me least of all – I'm a joke, a prankster, I could never threaten a genius intellect like him. That's how we take down the bigger boys like your father; we hit them hard and disappear, let their paranoia do the rest; death by a thousand cuts." Rose considered this for a moment before shaking her head,

"Won't work, Slades' in this city too deep to be rattled."

"But he's on his own, we've got a city on our side; don't forget I'm a Titan. Information is power Rose, never forget that; there's a tool for every occasion. Let's say we track down a robot factory, we assume it'll be armoured like a bank vault, ready for anything a super can throw at it; can it survive an unexpected health and safety inspection following an anonymous tip-off? Are all his employees legal residents of the state, or the country; a charge, or even accusation of slavery's a really big political no-no. Got a permit for that death-laser; no – sorry, we'll take it away and here's a number to try and get it back. If his robots try to obstruct the bureaucracy he's in contempt anyway, if he goes nuclear and puts civilians at risk the Titans and probably the Justice League will be on his ass faster than the Flash after a dozen expressos, and while he's dealing with the paperwork we can start going after softer targets. It's not going to be quick Rose," he admitted, meeting her eye steadily as he impressed this point on her again, "it never is, but it's got to be done right to make sure he's left with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide."

"Never is?" She repeated, her finely-honed mind immediately isolating a deeper meaning in his words, "You've done this before?" Beast Boy nodded,

"It's why the Brotherhood is such a threat to the world and the Doom Patrol's got the reputation it has; because they work together doing what we do is what it takes to stop them. Most of our work was done isolating their bases, rooting out their political affiliates and taking out their resources the same way I just described – work in the field is dangerous as hell but isn't much of the Patrols' day job. We can't go for the throat Rose; I know that's what you were planning when you arrived here," she didn't deny it, nodding as she absorbed his knowledge silently, "that would have been suicide at best, delivering yourself right back to him at worst."

"You're right," her mental conditioning wasn't so strict that she couldn't admit fault, though doing so chafed her pride, "so why aren't all the Titans doing this for all your enemies, why just you?" Beast Boy shrugged,

"Because I'm the only one that can," he pointed out, ticking off on his fingers, "for a start it's how I've been trained; Batman's great and all but he's always after the top guys, though I suppose he has to be as they're always getting out; Gothams' courts are more bent than Elasti-Girls' yoga sessions. Robin's the same, he just doesn't see that sort of picture and even if he did he'd probably never do it; clowns like Ding-Dong are one thing but for more serious feuds it'd spill onto the street and he draws the line at death, especially with civilians at risk – even suggesting what we're doing would give him a fit of the vapours and hurt the team."

"The others that squeamish?"

"Depends; none of us want civilians involved, least of all me, but I think they'd all kill if they had to, even Rob. But that's the problem, doing it would break them afterwards and I'm not going to let that happen. Rob would completely disintegrate, Cy would be afraid he's becoming more machine than man, Starfires' a warrior so might not be too bad but it would still screw with her powers and Raven," he shuddered at the thought of the empath with blood on her hands, "she's emotionally delicate at the best of times. Even being in the tower with everyone's emotional repercussions would knock her badly, if she actually did the deed all Jump would be in for a world of hurt. Not worth the risk, better just me doing the behind-the-scenes bits and getting the information we need while you go Wolverine on their asses."

"Hate that comic, completely unrealistic."

"I know, nothing like real life but it's fun to dream sometimes right?"

Rose nodded and a silence fell between them, Beast Boy deliberately glancing away from his partner while keeping the corner of his eye on her. Since her arrival in Jump and his fortuitous notice of it (and after a discrete call to Mento to arrange from him to verify Ravagers' words psychically from a nearby booth in the restaurant they'd held their second meeting in – though Rose hadn't known it, had the Doom Patrol veteran sensed she'd been lying she'd not have walked away from her second encounter with the youngest Titan) their joint venture had proven fruitful. Already several names had been crossed off the Titans' extensive annoyance list and tonight would strike a blow against a more serious threat, possibly a terminal one if the hasty nature of Bloods' latest construction indicated the growing desperation Beast Boy hoped it did. The Titans nailing Professor Chang six weeks ago had removed a lot of the expertise he needed to build the Cyborg copycats that represented most of Bloods' military might, compounding his and Ravagers' actions in permanently destroying his main droid processing plant and, more importantly, the back-up schematics database housed at the place shortly afterwards. Putting himself in the desperate teachers' shoes Beast Boy tried to predict his next move; springing Chang was an option but mostly he needed cash to rebuild, hence this new school plan. Several of his old students were on good terms with their former master and might advance him loans – it might be time to keep a closer eye on the H.I.V.E. for the next few weeks…

"Garfield," the surprise, both at Roses' interruption and her use of his name, broke him from his introspections so quickly he jumped, taking in the assassins' more uncomfortable body language with a glance and remaining quiet, "you do this for your friends – is it because you, really care for them? Is this, like love?"

They were making progress, though he was careful to keep elation off his face as he weighed his answer. In the time he'd known her Beast Boy had come to think of Ravager as not too dissimilar to Starfire, though with more choppy-choppy knives and deadpan seriousness than starbolts and sunshine. She was not naïve as the Tamaranean often was, but she didn't understand how normal people interacted, often listening in silence to Beast Boys' discussions of general life in the Tower prior to missions with dismissive attentions and asking questions to clarify things in her almost-autistically focussed mind. Questions meant she was receptive to a different point of view, a new idea and out of respect for this Beast Boy didn't goof around as he may have done with closer friends, instead boosting onto a pallet of bricks and drumming his heels idly as he formulated a cohesive reply,

"That's not easy to answer Rose, especially because I don't think I can love, not like humans do – don't forget I'm part if not mostly animal. I've got a different perspective on most things compared to other people and especially other superheroes; to me love, for example, means I'll fight, kill and even die to protect you, or to make sure you can't get hurt in the future – that's not what love means for normal people. It's why I don't really care about kisses or Valentines or things like that, they're not important to me."

"But you always…"

"I do that to fit in," he explained gently, Rose cocking her head as she digested this, "I'm of the age now where normal boys, and super ones come to that, are all about what girl's packing how much booty, it's just easier to go with the flow than try to stand out and have to keep explaining it. Still, back on topic I'm doing this now because it benefits my pack, my friends – it stops a possible threat to them. It's the same reason that tomorrow morning I'll be back arguing with Cy because he always wanted a little brother to argue with and beat at computer games, I'll train with Robin to make sure he doesn't start to get obsessive over your daddy dearest and annoy Raven so she doesn't close herself off from the world too much. That's just natural to me; I see a problem with a pack member or a threat to the pack I try to fix it – not always successfully I admit but I like to think at least most of the time I do some good. Some people might call that love but to me," he shrugged, "it's just what I do."

Rose didn't answer, instead balancing a short dagger she pulled from the lining of her jacket on her fingers, the mindless exercise whiling away the time to zero hour. Beast Boy gave her time and space, preparing himself in his own way and allowing his instincts to rise, the nature of the Beast rising closer to the surface but crucially not threatening to take control of the man. Night was falling rapidly now and it would soon be time to strike another blow against someone who'd come far too close to ending his beloved big brother forever; the thought made him smile darkly before a whisper of steel made him glance up at his companion again,

"I think, I understand," she began slowly, not dropping here monocular vision from his face as though scanning for deceit, "you're more relatable than others I've met – I never understood other partners, often killed them."

"Hell is other people; aha" Beast Boy quoted, giving a triumphant hiss as he finally pulled the small ring from his pocket, "we has it, the precioussss; ready to go?" She nodded, then paused and he sensed another questioning coming, one with a sharper point than any that had come before,

"You said this was a cold war," he knew what she was driving at but nodded anyway, "what if it goes hot?"

"Hopefully the Titans will be able to handle it; if the bad guys are squaring off with each other or getting desperate we should be able to take them out. If it gets nasty though we, you and me this is, change tactics, same as if their fights spill over and threaten people, kidnapping, ransom and the like" he said coldly, not breaking her gaze even as he saw her smile grow a fraction, "I'd rather strangle their businesses and run them out of town but if some of the super-idiots here decide it'll end in blood I'm going to make damned sure it's theirs, not ours."

"You'll kill?"

"If I have to," he affirmed, providing the reassurance she was looking for, "death's like love for me, different – if caring for my friends means I've got to put some of these assholes down I can live with that; I'd rather be haunted by my enemy's' ghosts than carry my friends' coffin."

"True," Rose flipped the dagger away and dropped her rucksack to the ground, checking her watch as she unzipped it, "get dressed." He fiddled with the ring finger on his left hand and grimacing as the holoring took effect, hiding his normal features behind a black suit with a marked skull mask, "man I hate looking like this idiot, too many bad memories."

"He's just a memory," Rose pointed out, Beast Boy looking away in reminiscence as she reached for the base of her top despite the fact she never told him not to peek,

"Too right, without the suit he's nothing," in truth Red X had been arguably the easiest villain to take out as there were very few places he could obtain the power source his suit needed. His gadgets were fancy and he was on par with Robin in a straight fight but all that counted for nothing after one of his heists, when the thrill of victory dulled his normal senses and against a wolfs' tracking nose and a girl hand-trained by the most lethal assassin in the modern world it was a mistake he'd only made once. The man behind the mask had been exposed, photographed on a multitude of media and beaten to within an inch of his life, left to crawl into (admittedly wealthy) obscurity as his suit was burned for good, its holographic representation put to better use in future missions. Rose, acting on Beast Boys' advice, had given the mangled villain two weeks to leave town and had the blackmail to make sure he stayed away; as of now he was a non-entity,

"Any idea where X actually went after the tap-dance you did on him?"

"No." Risking a glance Beast Boy let a sly smile slip over his face as he saw his companion fully decked out in her mission gear, marvelling at the accuracy of her approximation of Dr Lights' normal uniform before remembering she was also a trained infiltrator,

"Looking good, but you've not locked him in your bedroom then?"

"No; chained him upside-down to a wooden cross – don't want him to escape." Even through a holographic mask Beast Boy managed to spit-take, gazing at her small but proud smile agog,

"You, did you just joke Rose? That's awesome," knowing she wasn't fond of sudden physical contact he slowly patted her closest forearm, feeling the implanted metal tubing that he hoped was only a fake photon blaster in her uniform, "you're learning; got those blob-throwers?" She nodded and a second later he idly snatched the weapons she threw him out the air, holstering them to make his disguise more complete before nodding,

"Ready to go?" She casually threw a smokeless flare into the discarded bag, neatly removing any trace of their presence as it began to catch fire,

"Lead the way Predator."

At the name Beast Boy cursed both himself for letting the platinum blonde know his former Doom Patrol call-sign and her for using it, looking over his shoulder at the unrepentant villainess,

"What was the bargain Daddy Issues?"

"Slip of the tongue," she said unconvincingly, Beast Boy rolling his disguised eyes, "why don't you use it – it's better than Beast Boy."

"Can't be a predator without a taste for blood; I'm trying to delay that as much as possible." Kicking over the ashes of her former bag Ravager paused for a second, perhaps a hint of softness in the piercing blue eye visible through her mask,

"Looking out for the Titans?" Even through his holographic disguise she saw the naked conviction etched on his face,

"Always; Negative Man said your humour changes after you take a life, and anyway there's already one bloodstained clown in this world and he's more than enough, Robin would tell you that," thoughts of the Bird-Boys' stories about that laughing psychopath made his fists clenched slightly, feeling himself temporarily discarding the mask of the prankster to better assuage the vehement need in the core of his soul, "I'll be their brother, their student, their friend and their pain in the ass tomorrow; tonight I'm their protector, your partner and we've got work to do."

"And tomorrow, for me?"

"I'm your eye in the sky for signs of Slade and I'll keep you posted on how Jericho's settling in – he's good, I know that much, maybe even getting close to the little sparkler if rumours are true."

"Thanks; let's go."

As the two dropped noiselessly from under their plastic shielding and disappeared into the night Beast Boy had little idea that his words were finding deeper routes than he'd ever anticipated in two separate souls who now knew part of his whole truth. As one silently meditated and admitted to herself that she callously taken someone she belatedly realised was very dear to her completely for granted and thought of ways to make amends the other, as she prepared to tear through the the now blacked-out building wondered what the shapeshifter might one day be to her should she become part of his pack.

* * *

A/N: Okay, all finished and I hope you enjoyed this take on Beast Boy – I was aiming to explore what someone who was part-animal would consider love to be or kisses to mean; going off how my dogs react to different situations e.g. when a friend comes home, when they're playing with a child or adult, when they think there's a threat to the family home etc, this is what I ended up with, a Garfield trained to look out for his pack both short and long-term and animalistic enough to blur 'human' morals and mores to see them safe. I also wanted to include Ravager as a case study into someone reduced to virtual autism focussed on killing people (this isn't meant as an insult, just an observation that autistic people are usually hyper-focussed on specific things and don't like changes to their chosen environments – in this case, Slades' brutal training and the super-soldier serum he used on his daughter did pretty much the same thing to her) coming into friendly contact with someone like this Garfield. It would be a very interesting way to develop them carefully and slowly into a functional human being and with his instincts (much like dogs with difficult children) Beast Boy would have a decent handle on how to approach the problems she'd face; she might not and/or never be sexually attracted to him, but Garfield could be Rose Wilsons' best friend.

Anyway, enough of the old man's ramblings, hope you enjoyed this short and good luck in your own writings!


	10. ShiningHopeBeast

**Author's Notes:** This version of the story was done by **ShiningHopeBeast!** I am ashamed to admit that somehow I overlooked their contribution and the story remained languishing forgotten in my inbox for months. A very public and very contrite apology to them for my oversight. I hope you enjoy this addition as much as I did!

-=oOo=-

 **High Stakes**

"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the king!"

His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.

"YEAH! Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"

Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.

The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger.

* * *

 **-=( ShiningHopeBeast's Version starts here )=-**

Cyborg and Robin definitely weren't expecting his answer.

"Yeah," he said nonchalantly, eyes remaining fixed on the screen as he yet again increased his lead.

Robin and Cyborg once again exchanged a glance. Was he really that calm and collected? Why didn't the question provoke a stronger response? "Really?" asked the Boy Wonder incredulously, trying to prod Beast Boy into losing his cool.

"Yeah, dude," he affirmed. "I have." He skillfully dodged the combined attacks of the two older boys and retaliated by swiftly killing them. A wicked gleam shone in his eyes.

Both of them were now not only skeptical but also angry that their plan was clearly failing. They racked their brains for ways to push the issue further as to elicit a response from him that would tip the game in their favor.

"Oh, yeah?" Cyborg responded at last. "And who might that be?"

Robin quickly caught on. "Let me guess. One of those obscure Japanese chicks in the Beast Boy fan club. Probably didn't even mean anything."

Beast Boy shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Dudes, what's up with you?"

Cyborg grinned as he fired off a shot, successfully hitting his target. "What's up with you? Seems like your trying to avoid the question. Is it true, then?"

Beast Boy shook his head. "Course not! Are you stupid enough to think that I would just randomly go and kiss some random girl?"

"I do," Robin responded. The half-robot and the acrobat burst out laughing, Cyborg risking taking a metal hand off of his controller to give Robin a high-five.

Beast Boy frowned. "That's totally not funny."

Both boys were beginning to have more fun than they planned. "C'mon, B," Cyborg said. "Just tell us the truth. You haven't kissed a girl before."

"I have too!" Beast Boy retorted. "I'm no liar!"

They reverted back to poking fun at who it might have been. "Was it Terra?" Robin asked. Suddenly realizing what he said, he flinched at his own words, and he and Cyborg braced themselves for his reaction.

Beast Boy faltered for only a second, a second enough to lose part of his lead. He gathered himself again quickly, although a different hint of emotion lingered in his eyes. "No," he said quietly. He picked up his voice, sounding much calmer. "I mean, we almost did, but, it just never ended up happening."

Surprised at his response, both of the other Titans lulled in their efforts. However, as the clock ticked down to two and a half minutes remaining, they silently signaled to each other to renew their attempts. They hadn't done any harm, anyways.

"How about other Titans?" Cyborg laughed. He and Robin continued to pitch in with various other Titans' names at a rapid pace. At each one, Beast Boy grew more and more irritated, thus becoming more and more clumsy with his controller and allowing the two other Titans to close the gap further.

"Kole?"

"Argent?"

"Jinx?"

"Bumblebee?"

"Pantha?" (Both boys howled with laughter at this one.)

"Starfire?" Robin was not pleased with this one, glaring at Cyborg out of the corner of his eye. Cyborg shrugged casually in response.

Beast Boy responded once he had an opportunity to speak. "Okay, guys, you really wanna know?" He was annoyed beyond end by their pestering.

"Yes, tell us, man!" Cyborg exclaimed, preparing to have some fun with the answer.

Beast Boy took a deep breath in preparation before he answered. "The girl I've kissed before is-" He took a breath for a suspenseful pause.

"-Raven."

Robin and Cyborg were silent for a moment before bursting into hysterical laughter. With their controllers forgotten, both of them practically rolled on the floor in their amusement.

"Raven!" Cyborg gasped in between cackles. "Now that's the funniest thing I've heard all day!"

Beast Boy glared at them, somehow still continuing to play the video game. "I'm not joking," he warned them.

Robin shook his head. "As if Raven would ever kiss you," he chuckled.

Beast Boy opened his mouth in anger to retort, when suddenly a look of enlightenment came over his features. He grinned. "Think whatever you want to, Bird Boy," he responded smugly. "Cause I've just won the game."

This stopped them in their tracks. "WHAT?!" they shouted in tandem, whipping their heads to look at the screen.

Indeed, Beast Boy was truly the victor.

"WINNER: BeastManGML12345"

"Oh, yeah! I am the KING!"

Both older boys' mouths gaped open. Not only had their plan been foiled, but they had been defeated in a similar fashion.

Cyborg recovered from his shock first, his disbelief morphing to rage and finally a bitter grin. "Hey, man, you may have won the game, but you're still a liar."

Beast Boy turned on him. "Dude, that's not cool. You can't just go and call me a liar just because you have to do the dishes."

Robin joined in. "Beast Boy, it's obvious that you're not telling the truth. You can't fool us. There's no way on earth that you could have ever kissed Raven."

"I have!" Beast Boy insisted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yo, man, this isn't funny anymore," said Cyborg. "Just come clean and tell us the truth. We won't make fun of you anymore, honest."

"I'm not lying!" Beast Boy shouted, hurt and anger creeping into his eyes.

None of the three male Titans noticed that the door to the common room opened, as they were too absorbed in their argument.

"Beast Boy, I'm serious. Why do you keep insisting on lying to us?" Robin's eyes were narrowed behind his mask.

"I'm telling you, I'm. Not. Lying." Beast Boy's voice was cold, his eyes darkening.

A quiet voice dissipated the tense atmosphere. "What's going on here?"

The three of them turned to see Raven, clad in her cloak and standing passively, watching them with knowing eyes.

Before the others could speak, Beast Boy walked up to Raven and whispered into her ear. Robin and Cyborg watched closely.

Though her face remained stoic, her eyes glinted. "I would ask you to think carefully about accusing someone of lying without proof," she said slowly. Beast Boy smiled confidently as she spoke. "Now please, watch closely." She turned to Beast Boy and the two of them leaned in.

The chaste kiss was soft and tender and full of sincerity. Though it lasted no more than a few seconds, the impact on the other two Titans was very great.

Cyborg and Robin's mouths dropped open as they watched, completely surprised. They stood open-mouthed even after the kiss was finished.

Beast Boy wrapped an arm around the empath's waist. "Come on, Rae," he said with a smirk. "Let's go do something nice together." He grinned at his shocked teammates. "Have fun doing the dishes!"

After the walked away, it took Robin and Cyborg several minutes to recover. They looked at each with wide eyes.

"Did . . . that just happen?" Robin asked, scratching the back of his neck.

Cyborg slowly nodded. "Yeah," he confirmed. "I think so."

When Starfire entered the room a little while later, the two of them were battling furiously to determine who out of the two of them would be doing the dishes. Raven hovered nearby, watching them with a satisfied smile on her face as she stroked a green kitten curled up innocently on her lap.

THE END


End file.
